Barrett Media produces over 20 stories per day on the music, news, and sports media industries. Stay updated on the latest happenings by signing up to receive our newsletters straight to your inbox.
He’s an Air Force veteran, who at the age of 29 took a leap of faith, leaving his wings behind for a microphone. “I just ran it like I ran my counter-intelligence unit, build a good team, have a clear vision and execute it well and be willing to learn, make mistakes, recover from them,” CEO of Bold Gold Media Group Vince Benedetto said.
Benedetto was a part of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (think NCIS but for the Air Force). It’s this experience which allowed him to view information as currency. “The job for me was to collect information so that our Air Force assets and our military assets were safe,” he said.
The President of the Churchill Society of Pennsylvania went on to say, “You learned that relationships and information and knowing things as much as possible before everybody else knows, allows you to make decisions to be able to handle any environment. In that case in the military as a threat environment, trying to minimize the threat risks, or if there are threats, making sure you’re ready for them.”
His experience building an international network of communication became key when he bought his first four stations. Today, with 14 stations in New York and Pennsylvania, his military influence is built into the framework of his outlets. “It’s structured in a way a lot like military counterintelligence. We don’t overly centralize a lot of the model [which is different than] big radio companies where it’s very centralized.”
Benedetto is not one to debate if centralized radio stations are a good trend. He says of his own media company, “That’s not the way we’re structured. We’re very robust and targeted and localized and decentralized. So that is reflected in all of our coverage. So, our news is a huge part on our music stations or our news stations or our talk stations.”
Benedetto says that news is community focused and unbiased. “We strive to be a unifying force in our community with our radio stations,” he said. “I think Americans have lost a lot of trust in national news because it’s very agenda driven cable news. Even network TV stations are perceived to have slants one way or the other. Then what happens is [the community] loses trust [in that outlet].”
While many outlets are taking sides this election season, Benedetto stresses it’s essential for news to serve the entire market. That’s especially important in the swing state of Pennsylvania. “We want the whole community to trust the local stations. You have to be extremely careful in not having bias influence in your local news. The only way you can do that is to just report facts. Who, what, when, where, why, and how. Once you start commentating and editorializing around those facts, you’re going to start to get divisive or people will perceive you as being ideologically driven. So, we avoid that because we’re not all about politics here. We’re about community.”
Some of Benedetto’s stations service rural markets who don’t have a local TV station or newspaper. His team is crucial for relaying information. “I’ll give you an example,” he said. “Our New York stations in Sullivan County have quite a lot of active local races. We just hosted debates live on the radio with the candidates. There’s no broadcast TV in Sullivan County, New York that is locally based. We’re the local broadcasters. So, we hosted political coverage, but we had both candidates, and our news person was the moderator.”
The Chairman of the Joint Board for the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters (PAB) credits the hard work of his team who work tirelessly to build community trust. “We emphasize the trust and the relationship side,” says Benedetto. “Those are all things that build enduring successes. That is how you build enduring relationships, which in a small community particularly, you’re all in it together. If people view their local radio station as a force multiplier in the community, as an asset, and when they think of their local station, they feel like it’s a positive, you’re going to be successful. You’re going to able to grow.”
For those looking to explore a similar path to Benedetto, he says, “It’s the best time to get into broadcast radio. When I came in as an owner, everybody said, ‘you can’t buy radio stations. You’re 29. Who’s going to sell you a radio station?’ I had several people tell me that, and I still have people that think that I’m too young to own radio stations. I’ve owned them for almost 20 years now. And I think that’s an old view.”
He often talks to young people in business and media and believes they have one common misconception. “Everybody wants to go get a podcast or do a startup business. They think, ‘I’m going to make an app that’s going to be the next Facebook or Pandora.’ I say ‘you might be able to very well do that, but the reality is there’s very few apps and tech startups that are around five years after they get going.”
Instead, he suggests, “If you go find yourself a good radio station in a town or community you love, buy it or lease it. If you get yourself into that community and build a good team and do a few things well, providing good content, investing your time, heart and passion into the community, and giving people good, actionable, useful information that they need, you’ll be rewarded with trust in that product.
“People will use your product and service, and won’t just listen to you over the air. They’ll download your app, and follow you online. They’ll follow your social media sites, and you’ll be very successful. And then you’ll have a successful business.”
Krystina Alarcon Carroll is a news media columnist and features writer for Barrett Media. She has experience in almost every facet of the industry including: digital and print news; live, streamed, and syndicated TV; documentary and film productions. Her prior employers have included NY1 and Fox News Digital and the Law & Crime Network. You can find Krystina on X (formerly twitter) @KrystinaAlaCarr.
